I hope everyone enjoyed the Superbowl. Nice OT tension! I like these cultural things that half the country watches, makes for good chit chat and jibber jabber the next day at the office. The actual game is always the third topic of discussion behind the big mega buck ads and the halftime show. Next year I’d like to see Jack White headline halftime!
Chris, Shekky and I got together over the weekend to record out annual Valentine’s poem off for our Comic Culture podcast, look for the post tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM EST.
flowers you can smell – chocolates you can taste – comics you can read – love you can’t waste
I had a few excellent “Covers of the Week” to choose from out of this week’s “going to eBay auctions” pile, I settled on Fightin’ Marines #4 not so much for the very solid Francis Matera dawn war scene but for that little panel of Canteen Kate. Matt Baker first introduced us to Canteen Kate in Fightin’ Marines #2 making #4 her third appearance, unless she snuck into another title somewhere in between. I also liked that this cover has great gloss, should do well on the auction.
I’m going to stay with Fightin’ Marines #4 to show off some Matt Baker art. Matt Baker books are on fire at the big auction houses right now, his books are setting records every time they go up, its like 2021 but only for real. Such a natural and elegant style to Mr. Baker’s art, one of the true masters. How’d those G.I.s end up at the same base as Canteen Kate? Lucky stiffs!
I might as well stay with Fightin’ Marine #4 for the ad while I’m stuck here being smitten with Canteen Kate. I’ve come to the knee jerk conclusion that over the course of the 90 years of comic books that it is the gimmick prizes and trinkets that are the most advertised items in the long history of comics. They change over time but then again they really don’t. Also a cool note is that St. John in 1952 was only running one back cover ad, there are no other ads in this comic. I’m not sure why St. John publishing wouldn’t be filling up the issue with ads seeing as how they went bankrupt a few years after this book came out.
The latest edition of our weekly icecollectibles eBay auction that end last night finished with a big same of an X-Men #1, a book that has settled down from its crazy highs of a couple of years ago. Another book that seems to have settled is X-Men #129 featuring the first appearance of Kitty Pryde, our CGC 9.0 copy got $196.50 USD which beat the last sale of $182 but is well below its all time high of $785 set in the crazy year that was 2021.
